How To Use Plant Based Dyes - Steward Community Woodland. The production and use of synthetic dyes, while providing us with bright and vibrant colours, is often detrimental to our environment and health. Dyes derived from the natural world can provide us with an infinite number of colours, and natural dying is a centuries-old craft that offers a practical and creative alternative to mass production and the environmentally damaging practises of industry. There is no better way to dye than with the subtle colours of wild plants, and there are well over 2000 plants that can provide a raw material for dying. Practical experience will soon teach you which plants provide fast dyes (those that hold their colour when washed), and which plants provide which colour.
You can experiment endlessly to achieve your desired colour or hue. Some natural dyes require the material you wish to dye to be prepared with a 'mordant', this helps the material to absorb the colour. You will need... What you do... Generally one kilo of dye material should be ample. Dyeing Fibers Links From Straw Into Gold. Vegetable Dye Color Chart - Flickr. Dye - Dyes From Plants - Pioneer Thinking. Did you know that a great source for natural dyes can be found right in your own back yard!
Roots, nuts and flowers are just a few common natural ways to get many colors. Yellow, orange, blue, red, green, brown and grey are available. Go ahead, experiment! Gathering plant material for dyeing: Blossoms should be in full bloom, berries ripe and nuts mature. Remember, never gather more than 2/3 of a stand of anything in the wild when gathering plant stuff for dying.
To make the dye solution: Chop plant material into small pieces and place in a pot. Getting the fabric ready for the dye bath: You will have to soak the fabric in a color fixative before the dye process. Color Fixatives: Salt Fixative (for berry dyes) 1/2 cup salt to 8 cups cold water Plant Fixatives (for plant dyes) 4 parts cold water to 1 part vinegar Add fabric to the fixative and simmer for an hour. Dye Bath: Place wet fabric in dye bath. NOTE: It’s best to use an old large pot as your dye vessel. Shades of ORANGE Shades of PINK. Early American Weaving & Dyeing (Dover Americana) How To Use Plant Based Dyes - Steward Community Woodland. Miss Make: Kool-Aid Dyed Yarn Tutorial. When I was a kid, nothing said summer like a tall, strong glass of Kool-Aid. Grape was always my variety of choice. That intense fake grape flavor with a few ice cubes clinking around in the glass...oh man.
Bring on the purple mustache. But did you know, since Kool-Aid is actually colored with all synthetic dyes, you can use it to [very easily] dye yarn and other natural fibers? You don't even need to add anything to make the dye colorfast, it's acidic enough on its own. It actually dyes so well that it makes me feel strange that I used to drink the stuff. You could do all one color, but since it's so easy, it's really fun to play around with several different flavors and see what happens when they mix. The yarn I used was Knit Picks Bare 100% Peruvian Wool: There are tutorials a'plenty on this subject all across the internet, but since I did a little batch of my own dyeing a few weeks ago, I thought I'd throw my two cents in. Kool-Aid Dyed Yarn [variegated colors] Materials: 100% wool yarn.